Is there a way to buy a house in Riften without doing the main quest? My friend said they offer to let you buy one in Whiterun after doing the main quest related part there, but I don't want to do the main quest. Is that the only way to be eligible to buy houses?

Also, is there a way to upgrade leather armor as much as you can things like Elven armor? I want to upgrade my thieve's guild armor as much as I can the other items, but there's no leather crafting perk since you start with that. Is there any way to upgrade leather as much as the others or will they only max out at Flawless?

Thanks.

if you just need storage, doing the part of the main quest needed to access the house is a very minor part of the storyline. It involves one dungeon that like me, you may have cleared before you even got to whiterun, and you don't even need to get to the part of the main quest where you do anything significant.. cough cough... I would just do that part... you can't miss the housing dialog either.. you'll know when you have access to the house. It's also the least expensive house in the game.

You need to start a misc quest line, which starts with an Argonian woman asking you for a healing potions because she's coming off a skooma high. That triggers a mini quest line which ends in you being able to buy the Riften house.

You can do the Stormcloak Storyline to Unlock the house in Whiterun.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1267388-vampiresbanes-guide-to-buying-a-house-in-riften/page__p__19242593__fromsearch__1#entry19242593

I actually made a guide for just this question. Granted the bottomless pit that is this forum ate it, but it still exists.

Thanks for the replies, I'll start doing miscellaneous quests in Riften. I had been avoiding picking up new ones since I had so many I hadn't gotten around to elsewhere yet.

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